Many systems exist today for receiving two-dimensional images for various further processing. There is not known, however, a method and system for utilizing such images for quickly and automatically calculating the volume of a large object such as a vehicle. Such a method and system has value in the transportation of a plurality of large objects in estimating total load size. Although there exist systems for computing load sizes from volume measurements which are provided as input data, there has not been a method and system for rapidly and automatically determining volume data for a plurality of large objects that may vary in volume depending on model and accessories.
With respect to vehicles, there has been known a method for detecting the shape and location of wheels for purposes of wheel alignment as disclosed in EP 0 674 759. There has also been known in the machine vision technology, a method for optical detection of edges of a relatively small object on an assembly line. U.S. Pat. No. 6,909,514 discloses a vision system for inspection of railroad wheels. U.S. Pat. No. 6,879,709 discloses the machine vision detection of faces within digital pictures and video. U.S. Pat. No. 3,069,654 discloses the detection of shapes from arbitrary images using the Generalized Hough Transform.
None of these systems contemplate the need and solution for automatically measuring relatively large objects, larger than a person, and objects the vary depending on model and attachments.